Chapter 748: Phase 2
The Battle of Fetter River broke the fragile balance between East Africa and the Boer Republic, and the entire Boer Republic's southern defense line of Fetter River was breached by East Africa overnight.
The next morning, after counting the results of the battle, East Africa captured and killed more than 20,000 Boer Republic troops, and the Boer Republic's front line collapsed directly.
However, the number of Boer troops evacuating from the front line was also quite large, estimated to be around 10,000. These Boer troops retreated rapidly towards Bloemfontein.
Merk: "After each unit has cleaned up the battlefield, they will continue to pursue southwards. The western route will target Kimberley, the northern route will target Bloemfontein, and the eastern route will support the northern route."
As long as Bloemfontein and Kimberley are taken, the war against the Boers will basically be declared over, and the war situation in the Boer Republic of the Southern Military Region will then transition from an offensive war to a security war.
Bloemfontein and Kimberley were the only two major cities in the Boer Republic. After conquering the two places, the Boer Republic was declared to be indefensible.
Of course, the biggest headache for East Africa right now is dealing with the "legacy" left by the Boers on the Fette River front. The first is to treat the wounded, followed by cleaning up the bodies, and finally the large amount of weapons and equipment left on the battlefield.
So many wounded and corpses need to be carefully cleaned up by the follow-up troops in East Africa. There is basically no winter in Africa, so these corpses left here may cause serious problems.
A total of fifty-three artillery pieces were seized in East Africa, which was probably most of the artillery assets of the entire Boer Republic. The firepower gap between the two sides was obvious.
However, yesterday, most of the heavy artillery in East Africa was left on the north bank of the Fette River and did not participate in the battle. Therefore, the Boers had the advantage in firepower, but the advantage in effective artillery attack was not brought into play.
The Boers could not take these heavy artillery with them, mainly because running at night was already urgent, and who had the time to drag these big things while running away?
I'm afraid that before I can walk for long, I will be captured by the pursuers behind me along with my weapons.
…
The results of the battle in the Boer Republic in East Africa were soon reported to Earl Roberts. It must be said that this was very bad news for the Allied Forces.
However, at this time, Earl Roberts had no way to help the Boers. While launching a counterattack against the Boer Republic in East Africa, part of the troops of the Eastern Military Region and the Northern Military Region of East Africa had already launched an offensive in northern Mozambique.
The coalition forces, which had previously been in a "very good situation", immediately fell into a state of panic.
"A cavalry division and three infantry divisions from East Africa launched an attack from the north. They launched a fierce attack on our northern part from three directions: Kaya, Tambara, and Malomeu. Currently, except for the Kaya area, the other two directions have been broken through by the East African Army."
"In this case, we can only abandon the Zambezi River line. Our troops are not sufficient to begin with, and the Zambezi River is too long to stop the East African army from crossing the river. Therefore, it is most appropriate to activate the Pongwe River defense line as a place to withstand this round of counterattack from East Africa."
The Pongwe River originates from the Nyangani Mountains in western Mozambique. The Nyangani Mountains are an important dividing line between the Matabele Plateau and the Mozambique Plains. It is also the cutting point of the military defense of the Matabele Province in East Africa. This location is very steep, so it is not the focus of attention of East Africa and the coalition forces.
The most important thing is that the Nyangani Mountains have basically not been developed. It is basically virgin forest and mountains. Except for a small number of indigenous people, there are basically no living people here, so the conditions for marching are not met.
Neither East Africa nor the coalition forces will use this place as a breakthrough point. If the army passes through here, there is probably a risk of self-collapse without even a fight.
The lack of roads is only one reason. The second is the abundance of forests and vegetation. Large tracts of virgin forest are impassable. Forests in Africa represent huge risks. There are all kinds of poisonous insects and diseases, and water resources are difficult to solve. Finally, the region is prone to natural disasters such as mountain torrents and landslides. If you are not careful, there is a risk of annihilation. Now is the rainy season, and Mozambique has abundant rainfall.
The Pongwe River is also one of the important rivers in Mozambique. Its lower reaches include the Port of Beira, the second largest port in Mozambique in the past.
However, the current Bella area is still a deserted land with few people. The city of Bella was founded in 1887 in its previous life.
Now, in order to deal with the military threat from East Africa, the Portuguese have abandoned a lot of land on the north bank of the rivers in Mozambique and instead built strongholds on the south bank.
Therefore, there is no Beira Port on the north bank of the Pongwe River estuary. Instead, Antonio on the south bank of the Pongwe River estuary has been vigorously developed.
The so-called vigorous development certainly does not refer to the economy, but to military purposes. From the very beginning, the Mozambique colony knew clearly that if a war broke out with East Africa, the north would definitely have a greater advantage than the south.
As for the east and west directions, there were no strategic locations to defend, so they could only take the initiative to launch an attack from the west, replacing defense with offense.
"Earl Roberts, if we activate the Pongwe River defense line, can we use this river to resist the East African offensive? We have not achieved any results on the western fronts. Even in the south, we have only separated the New Hamburg Port City in East Africa from the East African mainland, but have not eliminated the defenders of the New Hamburg Port City. I am afraid that the war situation will develop in a direction that is increasingly unfavorable to us."
Faced with everyone's questioning, Earl Roberts found it difficult to think of a way out, because the difficulty of the war with East Africa was far beyond the coalition's pre-war estimates.
When facing the first wave of offensive by the coalition forces, East Africa directly withstood the pressure. This was something that Earl Roberts had not expected. After all, the total strength of the coalition forces this time was close to 500,000, which was enough to launch a war, or even a war to annihilate a country, anywhere in the world.
The number of troops that Earl Roberts could directly command reached about 300,000, but now these 300,000 troops could not even take down the eastern defense line in East Africa, which was a serious blow to the morale of the coalition forces.
East Africa had only 70,000 troops on the eastern defense line, but it had to withstand three times the strength of the coalition forces. Not to mention the coalition forces' advantage in strength, the fact that East Africa could mobilize so many troops was beyond Earl Roberts's expectations.
After all, East Africa not only has the Eastern Defense Line, but also the Tugela River Defense Line, the Fette River Defense Line, the Orange River Defense Line, the Zambezi River Defense Line, and the West, these major battle zones.
In these major battlefields, East Africa has currently deployed as many as 200,000 troops, and there are troops in other areas of East Africa that have not been mobilized, such as the city of Gezira in the north, which is an important military town in East Africa to resist the British Egyptian army, and Dire Dawa to deal with British Somaliland. East Africa and Belgium, the Abyssinian Empire, and the Italian Red Sea colony must also have troops to prevent emergencies, so the military potential of East Africa is greatly underestimated.
Of course, in addition to the outstanding performance in terms of military strength, what is even more unimaginable to Earl Roberts is the combat effectiveness of the East African Defense Force.
The tactical level of the East African Defense Force is not inferior to that of the British Army, and is even slightly stronger than that of the British Army. This is very scary.
The British Army is not the Portuguese, Indian, Boer or black army, but the real British Army. At present, the number of British troops in the entire South African War has increased from 60,000 before the war to nearly 100,000.
This was also a huge pressure for the British mainland, but it did not have much effect on the South African battlefield, especially for its ally Portugal and other troops, which suffered heavy losses against the East African army and their combat effectiveness level was worrying.
If we could go back to the time before the war, even if all the troops under Earl Roberts were replaced by British, Earl Roberts would not dare to say that he could defeat East Africa.
(End of this chapter)
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